Chapter 144 — Do You Believe in Fate?

Chapter 144: Chapter 144 — Do You Believe in Fate?

~ Raven ~

Raven stared at the woman.

For several seconds, she couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

The Moon Goddess.

The actual fucking Moon Goddess.

She glanced at the silver light surrounding them, then looked back at the woman. She was still smiling, apparently waiting for Raven to say something.

"You’re serious?"

"Quite."

Raven opened her mouth, then closed it.

She had spent most of her life praying to the Moon Goddess. She had called on her when things went wrong, cursed her name when things got worse, and begged her for help more times than she could count.

Now the Moon Goddess was right in front of her.

"Holy fuck."

The words escaped before Raven could stop them.

She pressed a hand over her mouth. "Sorry. Am I allowed to say that?"

The woman’s smile widened. "You’ve said considerably worse since arriving here."

Raven lowered her hand.

Right. She can read my mind.

Which meant the Moon Goddess had probably heard every other thought Raven had ever directed at her.

"Oh, Goddess."

"Yes?"

Raven stared at her.

The woman laughed softly.

Under different circumstances, Raven might have laughed too. But the pain of her essence being torn apart was still fresh in her mind, and the darkness beyond the silver light suddenly seemed much less empty than it had a moment ago.

The brief amusement disappeared.

"That thing," she said, glancing past the woman. "What was it?"

The Moon Goddess followed her gaze.

"Her name is Vaelith."

"Vaelith," Raven repeated.

"She is my sister."

Raven looked back at her.

"Your what?"

"My sister."

Raven tried to reconcile that answer with what had happened only moments earlier.

The woman floating before her had saved her life. Her presence was warm and gentle, and Raven could finally breathe without feeling as though something terrible was about to happen.

Vaelith had nearly killed her just by turning her attention toward her.

"You have a sister?"

"Yes."

"And she goes around doing that to people?"

The Moon Goddess’s smile faded. "Vaelith has done far worse."

Raven’s stomach tightened.

"What does she want?"

"For now, it is enough for you to know that she is the source of the corruption responsible for the shadow wolves."

Raven went still.

The shadow wolves.

She thought of the Founders’ Hunt. The inverted sigils. The wolves that had turned on the students, and the way their bodies had changed after the corruption took hold.

"Wait. Those wolves in the Hunt?"

The Moon Goddess nodded.

Raven looked toward the darkness again.

She had spent so much time thinking about the Dreamwalker that she had barely considered where the shadow wolves had come from. She knew someone had altered the Founders’ Ward and sent the attackers into the Hunt grounds, but she had never imagined that the corruption itself could be traced back to a being like Vaelith.

"So she’s the one creating them?"

"Her corruption gives rise to them. Those who serve her carry out much of her work in your world."

Raven’s eyes narrowed.

"The Moonless Court?"

"Yes."

She let out a slow breath.

The Headmaster had confirmed that the Moonless Court was responsible for the Hunt attack. The Crown’s investigators had questioned Raven because the attackers had entered the grounds looking for her.

Now she knew who the Court served.

"Then why did they come for me?"

The Moon Goddess regarded her quietly.

Raven felt her patience slipping already.

"You know, don’t you?"

"I know that Vaelith has become aware of you."

"That wasn’t what I asked."

"No," the goddess agreed. "It wasn’t."

Raven stared at her.

She had a horrible feeling she was about to spend this entire conversation getting answers to questions she hadn’t asked.

"Is Vaelith going to come after me?"

"You heard what she said before she left."

Raven could still hear the ancient voice shrieking Selena’s name and promising that it wasn’t over.

Her hands began to tremble again.

"Fuck."

The Dreamwalker could enter her mind while she slept. Raven had barely managed to force him out the last time, and even that hadn’t stopped him from returning.

What was she supposed to do against someone who could tear her essence apart without touching her?

"Is she more powerful than the Dreamwalker?"

"Considerably."

Raven shut her eyes.

Of course she was.

"Her influence has begun to spread again," the Moon Goddess continued. "What happened at your academy is only a small part of a much greater danger."

Raven opened her eyes.

"Small?"

She thought of the students who had nearly died in the Hunt. The corrupted wolves. The attackers who had come specifically for her.

"That was small?"

"I did not say the suffering it caused was small, Raven."

Raven swallowed.

She understood the distinction. She just didn’t particularly like it.

Then something else occurred to her.

"Vaelith called me Aelyra."

The Moon Goddess said nothing.

"She thought I was someone else. Then she said you had brought another one into existence." Raven leaned toward her. "Who is Aelyra? Another what?"

"You have questions about yourself."

"Yes, I fucking do."

The goddess’s expression remained gentle.

"Vaelith did not mistake you for Aelyra because of your appearance. She recognized something in you."

Raven went still.

"What did she recognize?"

"Something she encountered long ago. Something that once stood against her."

Raven looked down at herself, then back at the goddess.

An idea began to form, but she didn’t dare trust it yet.

"Are you saying I’m connected to Aelyra?"

"That is something you will have to discover."

"Why can’t you just tell me?"

"Because I do not know everything Fate intends for you, Raven. And I will not give you an answer about yourself that I cannot be certain of."

Raven stared at her.

She had heard enough versions of that answer to last a lifetime.

The Dreamwalker had claimed to know things about her parents and refused to tell her. The Crown had questioned her about the Moonless Court without explaining why the organization wanted her. Now the Moon Goddess herself was standing before her, and Raven still couldn’t get a straight answer.

She folded her arms.

"Is that a rule? Are all of you required to be incredibly annoying whenever I ask about myself?"

A faint smile touched the goddess’s lips.

Raven wasn’t in the mood to return it.

She was about to press her for an answer when the emptiness inside her caught her attention again.

She reached inward, searching for her wolf.

Nothing.

Her stomach tightened. She had been so caught up in questioning the Moon Goddess that, for a moment, she’d almost forgotten she couldn’t feel her.

"My wolf," Raven said, looking up at her. "Where is she?"

"She is safe."

"Then why can’t I feel her?"

"Because your consciousness is here, while your wolf remains with your body."

Raven glanced down at herself. "Did Vaelith do something to her?"

"No. Your wolf is safe, Raven. You will feel her again when you wake."

Raven held the goddess’s gaze for another moment before slowly lowering her hand.

At least that was one answer she could take back with her.

But there were still too many others.

"If you know all this, why don’t you stop Vaelith?"

The Moon Goddess’s expression changed.

Raven gestured toward the darkness. "You saw what she was doing to me. You made her leave. If you’re powerful enough to do that, why can’t you stop her before she sends more of those things into our world?"

"I cannot intervene directly in the affairs of mortals."

Raven frowned.

"You just intervened."

"You were brought into a realm where Vaelith’s power could reach you directly. I was able to protect you here. That does not mean I can enter your world and destroy everyone who serves her."

"Why?"

"Because the choices made in the mortal world belong to those who live there. I may offer guidance, but I cannot take those choices away from them."

Raven considered that.

Then she shook her head.

"Fine. Don’t fight them yourself. Tell the Crown where the Moonless Court is hiding."

The goddess remained silent.

"People nearly died in the Hunt," Raven pressed. "The Crown is investigating, but they don’t even know why the attackers came for me. You could tell them who did it. You could tell me, and I’ll tell them."

"That is not something I can do."

Raven let out a disbelieving laugh.

"Then what can you do?"

The question came out more sharply than she intended.

The Moon Goddess didn’t appear offended.

"I saved you from Vaelith."

Raven’s mouth closed.

She looked down at her hands.

The memory of watching them disappear made her stomach turn.

"I know," she said quietly. "And I’m grateful."

She meant it.

Without Selena, she would be dead.

But she still had to wake up. The Moonless Court was still out there, and so was the bastard who kept finding his way into her mind.

Raven lifted her head.

"There’s someone else."

The Moon Goddess waited.

"A Dreamwalker. He’s been entering my mind while I sleep. He hides his face, and every time I try to find out who he is, he—"

Raven stopped.

Flashes of the pain returned, and Raven clenched her fists.

"He keeps coming back," she finished. "I don’t know who he is. I don’t know whether I’ve spoken to him in the academy without realizing it."

Raven held Selena’s gaze.

"Please. Just... Just tell me his name."

"I cannot reveal his identity to you."

Raven stared.

For one absurd moment, she thought she might have misheard.

"You can’t?"

"The truth will become clear through the choices you make and the things you discover."

"Oh, for fuck’s sake."

She turned away, dragging a hand down her face.

This was useless.

She had finally met the Moon Goddess, and she was going to wake up knowing that the monster behind the shadow wolves had a name, but not knowing how to protect herself from the man who was already tormenting her.

"I forced him out," Raven said, turning back. "My wolf helped me, and I forced him out. Then he came back anyway. What am I supposed to do? Never sleep again?"

"You are his bane, Raven."

She blinked.

"What?"

"The Dreamwalker has reason to fear you. When your wolf restrained him, you were able to fight his hold on your mind."

"Yes, but I needed her to do that."

"Your wolf helped you, but the resistance came from you as well. He knows that, Raven. He fears what will happen when you learn to shut him out before he can hurt you."

Raven paused.

She had been so desperate to reach her wolf that she hadn’t given much thought to her own part in forcing him out.

But knowing that didn’t make her feel any safer.

"He still knows who I am," she said. "And I still don’t know who he is."

"You have not yet learned everything you are capable of."

"Then tell me."

The Moon Goddess said nothing.

Raven threw up her hands.

"Who am I?"

For the first time, the goddess looked at her for so long that Raven wondered whether she might actually answer.

Instead, she asked, "Do you believe in Fate?"

Raven stared at her.

"Seriously?"

"Do you?"

Raven almost laughed.

Vaelith had mistaken her for Aelyra. Selena had suggested that Fate had brought another being into the world. Raven didn’t know what any of it meant, and now she was being asked whether she believed in destiny.

"What has Fate ever done for me?"

She thought of Blackthorn. Of the years she had spent there, and of everything that had happened since she left.

"If you’re about to tell me I was destined to go through all that so I could end up here, I don’t want to hear it."

"I would never tell you that you deserved what happened to you."

Raven fell silent.

"The people who hurt you made their own choices," Selena continued. "Fate does not excuse them."

"Then why didn’t you help me?"

The question escaped before Raven could decide whether she wanted to ask it.

She had prayed for help at Blackthorn. Not just once. There had been nights when she had begged for someone to come, for something to change, and nothing had happened.

Raven looked at the goddess.

"You heard me, didn’t you?"

"Yes."

"Then why?"

Selena’s expression softened.

"I could not reach into their lives and force them to treat you differently. But that does not mean what they did to you was right, Raven. You deserved to be protected by the people responsible for you."

Raven looked away.

She didn’t know what she had expected Selena to say. She was still angry about what had happened at Blackthorn, and hearing that the Moon Goddess had known about it didn’t make the memories hurt any less.

"Then are you saying my future is already decided?"

"No. Whatever lies ahead, you will still decide what you do when you face it."

Raven wanted to believe that her choices mattered. She had fought hard enough to reach Valerius, and she wasn’t about to give up now.

But Vaelith had almost destroyed her without giving her a chance to fight back.

"What good are my choices going to do against someone like your sister?"

Raven.

The voice was faint.

She turned toward it.

For a moment, she thought Selena had spoken, but the goddess was watching her in silence.

Raven.

Raven searched the darkness beyond the silver light.

"Cassian?"

His voice came again, clearer this time.

Raven.

She turned back to Selena.

"No. Wait. I’m not finished."

"It is time for you to return."

"But you haven’t told me who Aelyra is. Or why the Moonless Court wants me."

The silver light around them began to fade.

Raven reached toward the goddess. "Please. Just one more answer."

"Raven!"

Her eyes flew open.

The infirmary ceiling came into focus.

Cassian was leaning over her, his hand wrapped around hers. He looked tense, and when Raven tried to sit up, he steadied her with his free hand.

"Easy."

Raven stared at him.

She could feel the mattress beneath her and the blanket tangled around her legs.

Then she reached inward.

Something stirred beyond the chains.

Her wolf.

The familiar presence was faint, but Raven could feel her again. She tightened her hold on Cassian’s hand, blinking hard against the sudden sting in her eyes.

She was back.

"Can you hear me?" Cassian asked.

Raven nodded.

"Yeah."

Her voice was hoarse.

Cassian studied her face. His grip on her hand loosened slightly, though he didn’t let go.

"Did he come back?"

Raven understood who he meant.

She shook her head.

"No."

Cassian frowned. "Then what happened?"

Raven looked at him.

She thought of Vaelith’s attention settling on her, the terrible pain that followed and the silver light that had pulled her away before there was nothing left of her.

Then she thought of the woman who had stood before her, smiling as though meeting a goddess was the most ordinary thing in the world.

Raven tightened her hold on Cassian’s hand.

"I met the Moon Goddess."